


home alone together

by MaliaIsBoring



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: (oh my god they were roommates), Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Domestic Violence, SECRET TUNNEL!!!!!!!! SECRET TUNNEL, Slow Burn Katara/Zuko (Avatar), and they were ROOMMATES, it’s ok though he has friends who love him, modern au quarantine edition, the gaang has a house together, they’re also stuck in quarantine, they’re in college, zuko is a sad cookie
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:01:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24807424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaliaIsBoring/pseuds/MaliaIsBoring
Summary: the gaang have a house they share together, and due to some unforeseen events (covid) they’re all getting some quality family bonding time! there’s a whole lot of fluff, blanket forts, late night talks, and animal crossing! and of course, zuko is in love with his best friend. ah, the smell of pine.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar)
Comments: 43
Kudos: 144





	1. isolation celebration

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first fic so please be gentle!!! the lack of zutara quarantine fics was so drastic that i had to take matters into my own incapable hands. i’m not sure if it’ll be a collection of drabbles or have a actual plot (hopefully the latter) because i’ve never attempted a complex story before now. this is gonna be a trip!

“SOKKA YOU _BITCH! _WHERE ARE ALL THE DORITOS?” Echoed a voice through the silence of the small house, reverberating off the narrow hallways and into the ears of anyone unlucky enough to be within 20 feet of its source.__

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Unfortunately, given the unforeseen circumstances of a rampant airborne virus leaving no opportunity to escape, that includes the entirety of the houses residents.

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It wasn’t all bad, being stuck in a house with all of her best friends, Katara mused; it got exhausting, sure, but they provided good company and plenty of distractions. Suki had just come back from her deployment overseas and was the last of their group of 6 to move in, so the rest of them had enough time to settle into the house and stock up on groceries before there was a full on lockdown.

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As if wanting to prove her previous point right about being exhausting, an equally loud reply to Toph’s enraged screaming came from the other side of the residence in the form of an indignant cry.

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“YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO DEMAND MY SNACKS FROM ME!” called Sokka.

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No response.

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Seemingly satisfied with the lack of protest, the brief exchange was cut suspiciously short. This isn’t going to end well, her thoughts warned. Toph isn’t dissuaded that easily. 

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Neither was Sokka, apparently, as he decided it was necessary to assert some sort of dominance by bellowing out _“WATER TRIBE REPRESENT!”_ She could practically picture him beating his chest like an animal.

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Katara groaned softly and buried her head further into her pillow, praying in vain for the commotion to die down and let her go back to sleep.

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From the other side of their shared bedroom, she heard Suki huff out a small laugh in what could be interpreted as sympathy. How the literal _Kyoshi army Sergeant_ was able willingly put up with someone as dorky as her brother was beyond Katara, but the two of them are always beyond happy when they’re together and at the very least, Sokka didn’t complain about random bullshit as much when in the presence of his girlfriend. 

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It really was quite sweet, and Katara often found herself jealous of the pair; most of the time they lived in their own little world with one another, spending the majority of nights curled up in Sokka’s bed — she took a moment to wonder if it would just be easier to let Suki switch so she could just permanently stay in a room with her boyfriend. 

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She intercepted her own train of thought before it really even began. _If Suki switched and permanently roomed with Sokka,_ she reminded herself, _that would mean Aang would move into their room taking Suki’s place._

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Nothing against Aang, he made for good company when the household’s resident couple spend the night together and evict him from his own bed; there was just something strange about sharing a room with a boy she isn’t in a relationship with. His one-sided crush couldn’t be ignored so easily if they were in constant close proximity. 

Katara knew it was immature to avoid interacting with Aang one-on-one just because of something stupid like a puppy crush, but it was better than acknowledging it and shutting him down. They had been best friends for years, meeting each other in middle school when Aang and his foster dad Gyatso moved in next door. He was a couple years her junior but acted much younger, and she blamed that maturity gap for why she always felt so compelled to coddle the boy.

_Good for a little brother... but for a romantic partner?_ Katara found herself wincing a bit at the thought, the movement dulled against the plush of her pillow.

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Her thoughts suddenly felt loud as an eerie feeling of dread settled in; the house remained quiet, only the sound of heavy footsteps on the aged wooden floor broke the uneasy silence. 

Against her better judgment, Katara chose to continue to ignore the warning signs of an impending disaster and tucked her arm further under her pillow — no harm in going back to sleep when she had nowhere to be. 

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Of course, just as she began to feel her conscious drift into that hazy no mans land between the grip of awareness and the embrace of sleep, reality jolted her back to the realm of the living with an ear splitting yowl coming from the direction of Sokka’s room. 

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Springing up and out of bed led by instinct alone, she flew through the halls and past the living room, skidding to a stop outside of the scene of what she could only assume to be some kind of homicide judging from the wail of her brother moments before. 

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Somewhat unsurprisingly, she was instead met with the sight of Sokka in a type of modified headlock, Toph pinning him down against his bedroom floor as he tried to squirm out from under her grasp. 

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“I thought we were FRIENDS”,  
exclaimed the water tribe boy, the indignation clear in his voice as he remained trapped by the small girl. 

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“We were until you _ate_ the rest of the _fucking doritos_ you _ASSHAT!”_ Toph hissed back, milky green eyes narrowing in a menacing fashion. 

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They continued to wrestle on the ground, shouting obscenities at one another despite being no more than an inch apart. The commotion was enough to snap Katara out of her panic-induced daze as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Blinking a couple times for good measure, she took notice of the tall figure standing on the opposite side of the door frame as he observed the spectacle with obvious apprehension; he was worried, but didn’t seem like he was going to make a move to intervine. She didn’t blame him — Toph shows absolutely no mercy, no matter your intentions. 

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Letting herself get distracted from the feral brawl in front of them, Katara focused her attention on the aforementioned member of the household as he stood in with his eyebrows creased and nose scrunched up in a manner that would look like disgust to anyone unfamiliar with the gruff mannerisms of the Criminology major. 

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Through the concerned expression, she noticed that Zuko looked much more awake than she felt — not a surprise, the guy woke up so early she would often see him in the kitchen making himself some morning tea and keeping busy with tasks like unloading the dishwasher or putting away silverware as Katara was heading to bed. 

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It was nice having someone around to help lighten the load, she thought; Zuko was the only one who did chores without asking —though Suki has been assisting whenever she wasn’t unpacking or spending time with Sokka— and still she found herself entertaining the thought of just rooming with Zuko if Aang took Suki’s place. 

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...But no, Zuko has his own space free of any roomates. So did Toph. It’s only fair, given the two pay most of the rent. Those damn Trust Fund Kids. Still, she didn’t hold it against them for wanting to jump on the opportunity to have separate rooms from the rest of the housemates; Toph is prone to tripping on scattered items if she wasn’t the one to scatter them, and Zuko just liked his alone time. At least he has an escape from the constant socialization of a house full of very chatty friends.

Unlike Aang, Katara had befriended Zuko when she was a sophomore in high school. They were in the same Psych block, and the following year shared even more classes together.

She had admittedly found his stoic behavior to be a bit irksome when they had first met, her being an insecure teenager and taking the silence for something like condescending or distaste. It had made sense at the time, given the only prerequisite knowledge about the boy was the fact his family was filthy rich and he was _Azula’s_ brother. She was immediately wary of him for that final reason alone— Katara had the unfortunate habit of butting heads with the so-called _‘Queen of the School.’_

Teachers quickly discovered that she and Zuko made an incredibly productive team, and though it seemed like some sort of curse in the beginning, hindsight shows that their frequent pairing was probably the best thing to have happened to Katara in highschool by far.

Well, that and the day she watched Sokka get his ass handed to him by the martial arts club leader — who would later become his loving girlfriend. 

It really was lucky though, how the teachers all seemed adamant about grouping the two teenagers with one another at every given opportunity. Once they got past their initial animosity — _mostly Katara,—_ they were able to start trying to be nice to one another — _also mostly Katara._

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Zuko was studying to be a detective, hoping to specialize in cold cases and homicide investigations, so it only made sense that they shared many of the same classes; Katara wanted to go into either the Biology or Psychology field, and after getting closer with Zuko she decided she wanted to pursue Forensic Psychology and Anthropology.

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_They really were the power couple,_ she mused, feeling her cheeks heat a bit at the implication of the phrase despite nobody else being able to hear her thoughts. He and Katara were just good friends, and by the time Zuko graduated she could safely that he was her _best_ friend, and vise versa. They would spend late nights working on homework together and would even visit the college counselor as a team, since they both planned on going to the same university for overlapping fields.

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Zuko had actually been the one to originally suggest the living arrangements they found themselves in, as his uncle Iroh was moving to a much smaller house and offered his nephew and friends his old one. Hating to take anything for free, the college freshman offered to pay rent and Toph immediately followed suit, leaving the rest of the group to follow suit in a much less expensive fashion.

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Letting her mind continue to wander back down memory lane, Katara remained only distantly aware that the fight between Sokka and Toph had yet to cease. 

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Instead, she chose to remember all the times she spent with Zuko on the roof of his Uncle’s old house— _their house now—_ when he needed to escape from his family and she just wanted company. They would talk about nothing in particular and hide from all the looming thoughts about her impending year of loneliness following her best friend’s graduation.

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Despite how the prospect of spending a whole school year without his constant presence had made her stomach churn, she was glad that he could finally get away from his father and move into his own place. Katara knew that he had some pretty severe issues at home and had for quite some time, but both of them were always so busy looking to the future that they could never find much time to be in the present— much less dwell on the past. 

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The days at school when he would show up with long sleeves in the warmer months, with dark purple bags under his soft milky and typically brilliant gold eyes, or speak with a scratchy voice like breathing was painful and talking even more so; those days she would spend pressed closer to his side, frequent touches in hopes of granting silent comfort to the boy with a family life so mangled she knew she couldn’t begin to understand.

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So she just stayed close. She promised him she would always be a thorn in his side until he chose to pluck her out and be on his way, but he never did. 

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He never has. 

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And so, true to her word, Katara stayed close.

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As if he could hear her thinking about him, the soft blanket of nostalgia weighing down her shoulders, he tilted his head in the way she knew only he could, and caught her attention. Instinctively responding to the familiar motion, a pair of mismatched pale and golden eyes held their gaze as they met clear blue ones, and Zuko’s expression softened. 

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She chose to ignore the way it made her feel as warm as the memories that swam in her head and returned the smile with one of her own. 

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Breaking eye contact with a purposeful straightening of her back, Katara let out a tired exhale before a particularly pained yelp started her into turning completely back to the ongoing wrestling match ... only to see Toph very clearly _biting Sokka’s arm_ with a muffled declaration of, “watr tribe aimt got nufin ohn dis!”

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With an exasperated roll of her eyes, Katara knocked her fist against the wall a couple of times, hard enough to momentarily stop the tussle in front of her. 

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“Are you guys seriously fighting over that month old bag of doritos?” She snapped, feeling like a mother turtleduck watching her chicks fight over a discarded bread crumb. 

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Sokka used the distraction created by his sisters’ scolding to wriggle out of Tophs iron grip, standing up and making a show out of dusting himself off as the small freshman remained splayed out on the carpet so it looked as though she was trying to make a snow angel.

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“I was nothing but a victim in this situation” he quipped defensively, hand moving to cover his heart in a gesture of mock offense. 

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“Yeah right, fatass,” Toph gripped, blowing her bangs out of her face, “You ate like, a whole family sized bag of chips in the middle of quarantine! You’re basically saying I should just go ahead and starve!” 

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“I would’ve shared if you had asked nicely,” He pouted. 

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“Nuh-uh Snoozles, don’t give me any of that shit. We both know you would lock yourself in the bathroom and make me listen to you eat them one by one just to mock me.” 

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“You raise a fair point,” Sokka agreed— though he couldn’t really disagree, because his friend was very clearly referring to a specific incident from back in highschool that she clearly still hadn’t gotten over. 

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Katara cleared her throat, drawing their attention back again as she crossed her arms in what she hoped came across as a disapproving manner. It wasn’t like it matter much, given half of the target audience was unable to see the action, but she hoped it just sent pissy vibes in Toph’s general direction anyways. 

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“Are you guys done? Some of us are trying to sleep,” She huffed, still not over the forceful awakening they caused her to suffer through 10 minutes ago. 

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“My dear sister” Sokka began, mimicking the posh accent of an earth kingdom aristocrat, “It is literally one in the afternoon, and nobody here sleeps that late but you.” 

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Toph snickered, abandoning her grudge in favor of laughing at Katara— one of her favorite pastimes. 

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And sure, Sokka might be right about her semi-nocturnal sleep schedule, but it’s not like she was going to admit it to his snarky face. The moon is nearly full and as a result, Katara is left to stay awake to increasingly late hours, buzzing with energy only heightened by the lack of activity she’s been subjected to because of the nation wide order to stay at home as much as possible. 

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The shift wasn’t a new occurrence— restlessness under the light of a full moon was some sort of hereditary trait among the women in their family. She had felt the effects since adolescence, and Gran Gran said it was the moon spirit breathing life into her people. Sokka said that it’s proof his sister is a werewolf. 

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She scowled at the affoementiomed boy’s playful mockery and dismissed her brother with a wave of her hand, still too tired to put up with his antics. “I'm going to go play animal crossing. If you really need more chips you can order from my doordash account. I’m getting paid compensation because of the virus preventing me from going to work so it’s not like we’re about to starve.” 

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The sentence was punctuated by one last pointed look at the two of them before Katara pulled her shoulder up and away from the spot on the doorframe where she was leaning. Catching Zuko’s eye again, she gestured towards the living room with her head in an unspoken invitation for him to join her. 

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She made a beeline towards the living room, not bothering to look back. Zuko would be following, he always does. It was one of the only things in life she could count on. 

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True to form, as soon as Katara flopped down onto the couch with an exaggerated _oomph,_ she felt the pleasant sensation of a warm body settling against her side as Zuko handed her the switch controller after turning on the TV.

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Leaning into the gap made between her friend’s raised arm and his body, a content sigh escaped as she siphoned up Zuko’s body heat. He was always warm, and Katara had decided long ago that he would be her personal hot pack.

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The hot pack in question didn’t seem to mind, and had always leaned into any form of physical affection she offered to him. He was touch starved, and she was touchy. It was a sort of symbiosis that had developed years ago and still shows no sign of stopping.

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As the title theme played and the camera panned to follow a brown sheep villager in a vibrant sweater, Katara scowled in a childish display of revulsion and narrowed her eyes. _“Curlos,”_ She spat. 

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Zuko surrendered himself to the soft rumble of laughter the outrage in his friend elicited, and she turned to face him with a grin that only grew wider at his somewhat confused state. 

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“I thought you hated Curlos,” The boy remarked, remembering the hours she spent yesterday trying to annoy the unfortunate animal into leaving the island. And the previous day’s venture to surround his house with crafted jail bars and barbed wire fence. 

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“I’m gonna drop trash all around his jail,” She schemed, a menacing glint in her eye at the announcement of her latest plot for torture. 

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“What if he cleans it up?” 

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“You know they can’t do that,” Katara scoffed, sounding a bit less sure than she intended. After a second of deliberation, she unabashedly dug her hand through the deep pocket of his basketball shorts and snatched his phone. “But I’m going to check just in case.” 

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Zuko shrugged, not bothering to offer his thumb since he knew her print was already registered into his phone. 

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_“Dude, you are literally so whipped,”_ He remembered Toph teasing. 

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As he fought to keep a blush from rising to his cheeks, he felt Katara stiffen against his side and frowned. Squeezing her shoulder out of habit, he tilted his head to the side slightly in question and asked, “What’s wrong?” 

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Expecting an answer related to the eviction plan of her animal crossing villager, Zuko felt like the wind got knocked out of him as Katara held the phone in front of him so he could read whatever news article she was so distressed over. 

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He skimmed over the paragraphs and brought his palm to his forehead, the _SMACK_ and following groan got the attention of Aang, who had just wandered into the kitchen to grab an apple when he caught sight of his friends on the couch. 

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“What’s wrong, Zuko?” He asked, grey eyes round with worry. 

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Letting the palm on his forehead drag down the length of his face before falling back down to his side, Zuko clenched his jaw and growled, “They cancelled all possible internships and college is over until quarantine is lifted.” 

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Aang nodded and took a bite of his apple, reassuringly stating “But that’s not so bad right? It’s only supposed to last until the end of the month!” 

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“Thats just it,” Katara added, “They extended the order for quarantine to last _for the foreseeable future,_ until the waves die down or a vaccine is developed. Whichever comes first. 

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Another voice from the hallway joined into the conversation as Sokka and Toph emerged, alongside Suki from the opposite hall. _”ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!”_ Exclaimed boy, more distraught than Katara thought he’d be over the excuse to spend more time home with Suki. “WE ONLY ORDERED ENOUGH DORITOS TO LAST US _A COUPLE MORE WEEKS!”_

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Ah, there it is.

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“Your priorities are comforting, Sokka,” Zuko remarked dryly, voicing Katara’s thoughts out loud like he always does somehow. 

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“Well,” Suki began, hands on her hips in a determined manner “Those doordash employee’s are about to get some damn good buisness from this household.” 

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“Let’s order ihop for _dinner_ ,” Toph suggested, smiling like a 4th grader proposing the idea of dessert before dinner. 

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Katara raised an eyebrow as everyone paused and turned to look at her for permission, even Toph made an effort to stare in her general direction. 

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“What are you looking at me for?” She smirked, “Get my laptop and order before they close!” 

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_“HELL YEAH!” _Sokka hollared, raising his fist into the air in triumph as Aang made a mad dash past Suki and into the girl’s room for Katara’s laptop, “IHOP FOR DINNERRRRRRR!”__

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Katara couldn’t help but discard her sour mood in favor of laughing like a maniac as Aang reappeared from the hallway, holding up her laptop above his head like a trophy. The action spurred the rest of the group to begin chanting _‘IHOP! IHOP! IHOP! IHOP! IHOP!’_ as he ceremoniously lowered the old macbook onto the counter and pulled up the online menu. 

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Zuko allowed himself to laugh again, a smile reaching the corners of his eyes in a way that made him look so young again. The late afternoon sun illuminated the room around them and Katara swore his unmarred eye looked like a pool of gold in the lighting. 

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Feeling his skin prickle in a way that it always does when Katara is focusing on him, he turned to meet her piercing blue eyes and he felt his heart beat faster. 

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In an attempt to settle the tightness in his chest caused by the girl in front of him, Zuko chuckled once again and leaned forward, resting his forehead against hers. She never broke eye contact and leaned into the familiar touch, laughing softly as he muttered “I think there are worse people to be stuck at home with for months on end.” 

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He was sure that Katara could hear his heart beating like a caged rabaroo, but if she did she said nothing about it and instead smiled even wider, blue eyes sparkling like the ocean at sunset as she told him, “my thoughts exactly.” 

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They stayed there for a moment longer, drinking in the warm feeling of comfort and home, before Suki snuck up behind the back of the couch and startled them out of their little world, shooting two arms out to jolt their shoulders with the deadly precision only a trained martial artist could possess. 

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Zuko laughed as Katara made a noise of panic and fell backwards onto the length of the seat like a ragdoll. She stayed still for a moment and Suki giggled and gasped quietly, _“Spirits,_ I think I killed Katara!” 

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Adding to her point, the dead girl in question stuck her tongue out the side of her mouth and groaned, _“Blegh, i’m so dead right now. i can’t believe Suki could kill me like this. I’m so, so very dead.”_

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As Suki only laughed harder at the incredibly poor display of theatrics, Zuko caught sight of the dark skin of Katara’s exposed tummy. Using his head to gesture towards it and looking meaningfully at Suki to make his intentions clear, she leaned against the couch back for support and nodded in delight at his scheme. 

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“So, dead Katara...” He began, shifting slowly into a more upright position, “Are you like, really dead?” 

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“Yessss....” She replied, the same tone of voice as her initial declaration of decease. “Its my ghost who’s talking, that’s why you can hear me.” 

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“Thank you for the clarification ghost Katara.” He nodded solemnly, creeping closer to the vulnerable and unaware body of his victim like a predator hunting his prey. 

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“You’re welco— _AAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!”_ Katara screeched as Zuko launched himself on top of her, masterfully digging his thumbs into her exposed sides in a way that made her squirm and try to wiggle away in vain. 

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“ _ZUKO_ —“ She gasped, barely able to find enough air to keep screaming through her laughter as he contined to assault her sides. “I CANT —B —I CANT _BREATHE_ —OH MY G— ZUKO GET OFF— GET OFF IM GONNA _DIE!_ —“ 

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Suki, who had moved to the end of the couch nearest to Katara’s head, restrained her arms through her own laughter and barked out “I thought you were dead already! How could you deceive us this way!” 

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“Haul that dead body over here and order your ihop before it’s too late!” Sokka called from the kitchen, cutting off his sister’s attempt at protesting her alleged deceit. 

“Sure thing, baby!” Suki replied, motioning for Zuko to get off of Katara’s legs. When he obliged, his former prisoner stretched out her body to its full length. 

“Ahh, sweet freedom,” She sighed, before getting cut off once again by a pair of strong arms hoisting her up and over a shoulder. Judging by the fact that she wasn’t 6 feet off the floor, it wasn’t Zuko.

“Jeez Katara, you seriously need to eat more.” Her captor observed, “You have like, no weight on you.” 

“No, you just have too much muscle on _you,”_ She retorted, still hanging off of Suki’s shoulder like an oversized sack of flour. 

“Yeah, right,” She could hear the eye roll in her friend’s voice as she was passed off to a much taller perch. Zuko’s broad shoulder was considerably more comfortable, so Katara didn’t complain about the way her best friend and roommate were basically manhandling her to the extreme. 

“Oh wow, she’s right Katara. I think we should order you an extra batch of pancakes,” Zuko commented, bouncing her a bit on his shoulder as if to prove a point. Now this, she would complain about. 

“You’re just jealous because I still have more ass than you,” Katara retorted, reaching down to pat the offending ass like she were playing the bongos. 

“Excuse me? I have ass for _days_ ,” Came an indignant reply, and it made her laugh hard enough bounce up and down a bit on Zuko’s shoulder with each breath. 

“Well I have ass for _months!_ I am the Queen of Cakes and you dare challenge my authority? I will not stand for this!” She copied Sokka’s earlier posh accent and pretended that he had disrespected her. 

“You’re not even standing,” He pointed out, bouncing her on his shoulder again as Suki laughed at the offended gasp his observation drew out of the girl. 

_“TREASON!”_ She cried, resuming her assault on his butt even as he carried her towards the kitchen with Suki trailing behind. 

“Behold, her royal highn-ass,” She announced to the group huddling around the laptop. Sokka’s face lit up as he spun around and ran into his girlfriend’s arms, clearly overwhelmed by the joy of her horrible pun. He then pulled away and bowed deeply to Katara, who couldn’t see anyways. 

“M’lady,” He began. After a pause, there was a sharp _SMACK_ followed by an _“OW”_ Katara cried out indignantly, trying to spin herself around to shoot her brother a stink eye. _“YOU WHORE!”_

Toph cackled at her outburst, and Aang was beet red, flustered over the whole situation. He averted his gaze away from Katara— more specifically the side of her that was the focus of everyone’s attention— and towards the computer where the menu was displayed. 

“Uh— i’m gonna place the order if everyone is ready...” He began, jumping a bit as Katara rolled a bit on Zuko’s shoulder and squeaked out a “Wait wait wait!” 

Aang’s expression darkened a bit as the scarred boy adjusted her in his grasp to be held bridal style and carried her over to the counter so she could place her order in favor of just _putting her down._ Zuko made eye contact and they stared at one another for a long moment— before the older of the two gave a lazy blink and turned back to whisper something into Katara’s ear. She laughed and poked his cheek, sticking her tongue out at him like a child before resuming her previous fit of giggling as he lowered his head down and bumped their foreheads together affectionately. 

Shaking her head, Suki watched the whole exchange from the sidelines; It was a wonder how oblivious the rest of her housemates could be, but at least she got better drama than any reality show on the air. 

Sokka looked at her with an eyebrow up and turned back to look at the odd exchanges happening in front of them. He scoffed and leaned close to her ear, asking,“Want a drinking game that’ll get you hammered in an instant? Take a shot every time Zuko and Aang get territorial over my baby sister.” 

Chuckling softly, Suki was glad that her boyfriend was on the same page regarding the strange behavior of the other two boys of the house. She bumped his shoulder with her own and replied, “I would up the challenge and say take two shots every time Zuko wins, but I’m not ready for either of us to die of alcohol poisoning just yet.” 

Sokka laughed and draped his arm over her shoulders, letter the girl steer them both towards the rest of the group back out to the living room, where they decided to pull out the latest version of Cards against Humanity as they wait for their breakfast-that’s-actually-dinner to arrive. 

Seating himself next to Toph as Suki peeled away to settle down beside Katara, he punched her in the shoulder lightly and whispered, “Lets kick some pansy ass.” 

With a smirk more befitting to the devil than a 5 foot tall blind girl, Toph replied “It would be my pleasure.” 

By the end of the night, everyone agreed that quarantine might not be as sucky as they thought. 


	2. secret doors and memory lanes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The old house is more than what meets the eye, and new discoveries send those who find them down the path of old memories.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a beast to write! i’m not used to telling proper stories ahahaha.. I tried to alternate the perspective between different characters in a way that seemed natural, as well as transition into memories and back in a clean cut manner, but i’m not sure if itll end up reading that way to everyone who isn’t me. nonetheless, i hope you enjoy!

There were quite a few advantages to living in an old house, Katara discovered. 

For one, there seemed to have been little to no regulations placed upon the people who built it, leaving them the freedom to make whatever unconventional design choices they wanted-- this included having basement with windows sitting up high on the walls to allow light to enter, a ground floor, and an upstairs only accessible through the use of a small coiling staircase that was tucked away against the wall in the corner of the living room. It was a strange layout overall, but she thought it worked well. 

The layout of the house suggested it was built to house a single family, with an open kitchen connected to a sizable living room. Two hallways flanked the main area from either side with one leading to Katara and Suki’s room and a bathroom, and the other one mirroring the first with the exception of an extra room currently housing a mismatched array of workout equipment brought in for use by the various residents in favor of going to the gym. Sokka insisted that he and Aang have the bedroom closest to the exercise room, because they ‘were going to use it all the time.’ 

That conviction lasted for about 3 days, and her brother quickly decided that it was ‘a waste of time’ because he was already ‘buff enough.’ Katara didn’t think Aang even used the room for anything besides stretching and joining her when she went in to do her tai chi exercises. Suki and Zuko used it the most, but neither seemed particularly inconvenienced by the location, so nobody needed to swap rooms. 

The living room had a large fireplace against the far wall, next to the staircase. They had never used it, but the mantle was littered with various little decorations like highschool graduation photos and a couple plastic plants that Suki had brought for some reason. The tv was on an old cubby shelf attached to the wall on the far right, angled to face the rest of the room. It had a glass cabinet door and Katara liked to pretend the builders of the house made it to hold a fish tank.

’Did they have pet fish back then?’ She wondered, making a note to look it up later-- apparently they did, so her theory still stands. 

What they definitely didn't have was the worm on a string curtain hanging from the ceiling in front of the staircase. It was probably like 8 different types of hazards, but Toph and Aang wouldn’t let anyone take it down. Katara was suddenly very glad they had never used the fireplace. The multicolored amalgamation of fuzzy little toy worms was the result of the two youngest housemates drinking too much coffee and being made aware of a Tumblr post that had originally pictured the concept. How they found all the materials in one night was never made clear, and nobody wanted to know.

The creation was hung in the living room so everyone had to look at it constantly, and Zuko- whos room was the one upstairs- just stood back and let it happen. Now, every morning he would emerge from the stairwell like a king pushing past his royal curtains. Katara would occasionally still be awake to witness it, and would always be sent into a fit of sleepy giggles. Whenever she and Zuko crossed paths at the early hours of the morning, the two of them would sit together on the couch and talk in hushed voices; The stillness of the early morning surrounded the living room and closed them off in their own little pocket dimension of pale pink light and the soft sounds of birds chirping through the open window. 

On those mornings, she would always fall asleep slumped against his shoulder as the last traces of stars were drowned out by the sunrise. He would take a dumb selfie to show the girl later, laughing as she whined for him to delete it. She would make a show out of taking his phone and doing the deed herself, even though she knew he recovered the pictures afterwards every time. Suki woke up next, taking advantage of the empty sidewalks and forest trails by going for a run. When she went to the bathroom, Zuko would gently carry his best friend to her bed and return to the kitchen to start the water for his tea. 

Sometimes, Suki would catch a glimpse of him sneaking through the hallway, taking even steps in an effort not to jostle the dark girl sleeping in his arms. She knew he waited until he thought nobody could see, and found humor in the lengths he would go to in order to hide the tenderness of his hold; Katara was the last person on earth he needed to be careful with when moving-- the girl slept through everything and anything. Zuko was well aware of this and still handled her like she was made of glass, and Suki would try not to scream. They’re not even dating and he treats her like a princess, and it was adorable godammit!

Katara would wake up in her own bed half a day later, and he always made her a cup of coffee with the perfect amount of cream and sugar. 

Today was one of those days, and after taking a seat on one of the bar stools that lined the counter, she found herself smiling at the vague memory of being pressed up against a warm body and being carried to her room and tucked into bed. 

“What’s got you so happy?” Zuko asked as he handed her a mug. She accepted it gladly, taking a sip before humming,

“I was just thinking about this morning.”

The way she spoke of their time together so warmly made his heart do a flip, and he tried to mask the rising blush by exclaiming’ “OH! That reminds me!”

Moving to take out his phone to unlock it and show Katara the picture he took that morning, she narrowed her eyes and hissed, “you didn’t--”

She was unable to finish her sentence as her friend leaned forward next to her from the edge of the counter, holding his phone out so they could both see what he had pulled up on it. The selfie was slightly blurred-- Zuko couldn’t steady his hand to save his own life-- and depicted her sleeping against his shoulder, mouth slightly ajar with half of her face being obscured by a curtain of dark hair. He had his face pressed up against hers, and a lock of said hair was pulled across the fronts of their faces and held in a way that made it look like they shared one connected mustache. Feeling a grin break the previously annoyed expression that rested on her face, Katara thought to herself, ‘My best friend is literally the world’s biggest dork.’ 

Laughing softly and resorting to shaking her head to maintain the attitude of being upset at the dumb photo, she took a breath to admonish him. Instead, what came out was, 

“Send that to me.”

What. 

Zuko just stared at her, in as much shock as she was feeling at her own words. He tilted his head a bit and gave her a lopsided smile, pulling his phone back and Katara felt her phone buzz from the text he undoubtedly just sent her. Always being one to roll with the punches, even her own, she pulled out her phone and bumped his shoulder with her own. 

“You could've just airdropped it to me,” She teased, saving the picture to her own album. 

“Your phone was off,” He retorted, watching her screen as she went to the photos app on her phone and pulling up the most recent addition.

“I could have turned it on, dumbass,” The fondness in her voice took any possible bite out of the name, and she then shut off her phone with a satisfied, “there. Perfect.”

“Huh?” 

Katara hit the power button once again, showing off her new wallpaper. “Now anyone who looks at my phone will know how stupid we both are!” She exclaimed happily, unaware of the way Zuko’s heart decided that it was going to threaten to explode at her actions. Moving behind the girl, he draped his arms over her shoulders and grabbed his own wrist to lock the appendages together where they rested just below her collarbones. Settling his chin on the top of her head, he laughed softly and Katara could feel his throat rumble. 

“More like how stupid you are,” He replied, relishing in the way his arms moved along with her chest as she giggled. 

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. It’s my fault I can’t grow a mustache as luscious as yours,” She sighed dramatically, mirth in her voice. 

“Damn straight,” He agreed.   
In response, Katara leaned her head back and craned her neck so she was looking at the ceiling and-- more importantly-- the bottom of Zuko’s face. Arching her back away from the chair, she lifted herself up so she could bite his chin. 

“OW THE FUCK!?” He exclaimed, jerking his face away like she had just burnt him. 

Cackling, she held her head upside down from the back of the chair, watching him frantically wipe the spit off. When he was satisfied with the dryness, he moved forward looking down at her with narrow eyes. “You’re a feral animal,” He said, and quickly after he bent down and bit her exposed chin in revenge. 

With a scream, Katara instinctively raised her head, and yelped again once her forehead connected with her asailent’s sharp jawbone. As he pulled back again and she leaned forward over the counter, they both looked up at the same moment to see Aang by the sink. Just standing there. 

For some unknown reason, the sight threw them into a fit of laughter. Katara threw her head into her arms against the counter and Zuko fell to the floor, gripping his stomach with one hand as he covered his mouth with the other. Suki came into the kitchen with Sokka close behind, smiling at the hysterical laughter coming from her two friends. She then looked to Aang, standing by the sink in what seemed to be shock. She put a hand over his shoulder and he jumped, somehow failing to have noticed her approach. 

“What’s this all about?” She gestured towards the two who had seemingly lost it. 

Before he could respond, Toph called out from the living room, “Katara has rabies, probably.”

This caused the aforementioned girl to pound the counter with her fist before frantically holding her head up and inhaling loudly, gasping, “OH MY GOD MY STUMMY--”   
Sokka, who had begun laughing at just the scene alone, immediately lost his mind. 

“YOU JUST-- YOU JUST SAID STUMMY--” He guffawed, leaning back against the wall for support. His outburst caused his sister to clutch her stomach with both hands, falling out of her seat and onto the floor. The bare skin connected to the wooden floor with a resounding   
SCHLAP! -- hearing the noise, Toph started cackling and exclaimed, “ Did sugar queen just fall???’

Zuko rolled onto his side to face her, tears in his eyes from laughter, and choked out, “--Tara are you good?” She nodded and replied, “Only wounded my pride.” 

Sokka snorted. “What pride? Your werewolf pride?” His sister laughed hard again, inhaling as she cried, “LIONS HAVE PRIDES SOKKA. WOLVES HAVE PACKS—” Toph could be heard slapping the couch hysterically. 

“Ok, I think I should probably check you for a concussion,” Suki told Katara, kneeling down in front of the girl’s face so she could obstruct her view of Zuko. She didn’t need her friend to look over and immediately start laughing again, spurred on by eye contact alone. 

She smiled as she felt for any head bumps and made sure no pupils were blown, and just as she finished up her eyes were drawn to a small hatch near the base of the counter, painted to match the dark color of the wood. It was hidden behind the legs of the barstools, and would have never caught her eye if the sun hadn’t reflected off of it just so— the slightest glint betraying the metal disguised as wood. 

Squinting her eyes just to be sure, she furrowed her brows and asked nobody in particular, “Is that a door?” 

Sokka pushed himself up from against the wall with a strangled grunt, and Suki jumped as a voice from over her shoulder asked, “is what a door?”

Putting a hand over her heart, she turned and breathed out, “Spirits, Zuko, you scared the shit out of me.” 

He moved back and sat on his knees, rubbing his neck sheepishly and offering a bit of a smile and an apology. She observed his mannerisms and smiled back, shaking her head and telling him, “No worries, you just snuck up on me.” The boy nodded, turning to examine the metal hatch, and Suki couldn’t help but note how his awkward disposition seemed incredibly out of place on his nearly 6 foot tall figure. 

The guy had a major growth spurt, she recalled. He was basically the same height as her when they were freshmen in highschool, with a more lanky figure and a fresh scar that covered half of his face. Being caught in a house fire as a kid, she had recognized the mark to be a fairly recent burn. He wore his shaggy black hair in a way that hung over his face, doing what he could to cover up the wound. Losing herself to the memory, she let everything come flooding back into her mind. 

He didn’t sit with anyone at lunch, which was why she had taken notice of him at first. He sat on the short wall that circled a patch of ground that was raised for a couple trees to be planted in. Suki has considered inviting him to sit with her group of friends, but figured he wouldn’t want to be pitied by a dozen-or-so girls from the martial arts team. The girl she assumed was his sister would occasionally saunter over to him with her little trio of lackeys, likely taunting him if their body language matched whatever they were saying. 

Her curiosity couldn’t be helped, she had justified to herself. The gloomy boy was in her line of sight every day at lunch— it wasn’t like she could move seats just to ignore him. She didn’t want to, anyways. As the year dragged on, Suki had learned the name of the boy with the scar. Zuko, son of police chief Ozai. She was right about the rude girl being his sister, Azula, who was the age of an 8th grader but skipped in favor of going into highschool early; The girl was a genius, but the biggest bitch on the planet. 

Summer came and went, and when sophomore year rolled around, Suki barely recognized Zuko. He had grown like, 6 whole inches out of nowhere. In addition to his height, the boy had begun to fill out a bit, though he was still quite lean. His hair was a bit longer, and the scar over his eye had grown more calloused with age— no longer the angry red it had been at the same time last year. 

Appearance was where the changes had ended, she observed, as he took his old seat on the wall just as she had taken hers at the same table as the year prior. Falling back into routine, she would see him every lunch period; he always studied as he ate nothing but a sandwich, black hair covering his face like a barrier between himself and the world.

One day, as Suki took a seat at her table, she saw something that had been so strange even the rest of her table had taken notice of such a drastic change. Beside Zuko sat a small girl, with dark skin and darker hair. She had a sort of french braid, loops of hair separated by pale beads were tucked behind her ears and the rest fell loosely over her shoulders. She wore light ripped jeans and a thin white turtleneck underneath a blue shirt that Suki recognized to be for the competitive members of their school’s swim team. 

Her entire outfit was a stark contrast to Zuko’s, who wore black jeans with tears that looked less like rips and more like he had tried to shred the pants but gave up. His red shirt had the picture of the rip n dip cat with sunglasses on and doing a flip on a skateboard— if he hadn’t been wearing his big black leather jacket over it, Suki was sure he would have been dress coded. Looking between the two, it seemed like they were from 2 different worlds. 

Whispers moved around her table, as the girls identified her as Sokka’s sister. Sokka from her english class. Sokka, the same Sokka who would watch them practice after school. That guy was obnoxious, but he wasn’t stupid. Judging from the materials in the girl’s lap, she took after her older brother in that regard. She heard one of her friends mention that the girl— Katara— was the only freshman in their psychology block. Apparently the teachers always paired her with Zuko, and they made a good team despite being basically polar opposites. 

Suki split her attention between the conversation at the table and the subjects of said discussion. Katara was facing the boy and seemed to be explaining something, gesturing wildly and occasionally pausing to flip through her notes before she continued; Zuko watched her with the softest look she had ever seen on the boy, and it suddenly made sense why teachers always paired up the two. 

Katara continued to sit with him even after the week their project was supposedly due, and soon the novelty had worn off enough for everyone but Suki. It was impossible for her to lose interest in them, and every day was like an episode of her favorite television show. She would watch Katara grow more comfortable with the stoic boy, each day she sat closer to her friend. By the end of the year, they would share earbuds to watch something or another on either persons phone. They started to look less like opposites and more like two halves of the same whole. Katara had started wearing glasses, and the frames were a thick black along the browline with a gold metal wire that wrapped along the underside and circled around her blue eyes. 

The small girl could be seen wearing a black jacket on multiple occasions, the size too large for it to be her own. Every day she wore it, Zuko would coincidentally be absent. Suki heard from someone who had a locker near Katara’s that on the days he wasn’t at school, she would find his leather jacket hung on the hook inside her own. There was no explanation as to why, but she seemed to find comfort in the clothing. There were quite a few rumors the two were dating, but there wasn’t any proof of it beyond their closeness. 

Another summer came and went, and Suki was convinced that Zuko was taking some sort of growth steroid. It wasn’t as drastic as the jump between freshman to sophomore year, but he had definitely gotten at least a couple more inches on him. He kept his hair around the same length and not much had changed about the boy. She saw him come in through the office, looking tired and altogether done with school despite being late on the first day. She had waved him down, asking him to walk with her to the lunch room so she could fill him in on what he missed from Literature and History. 

They walked outside to the courtyard, and as Suki told him where to pick up the rest of his schedule, a figure had moved in from behind and crashed into Zuko’s back like a sabertooth moose-lion. He had been scanning in front of them, and the force of the impact had actually caused the tall boy to stumble forward, and when the attacker had loosened her grip enough for him to spin around, Suki saw at least 80 different emotions flash behind his eyes in a matter of seconds. He immediately blocked her as she tried to punch his stomach— she suspected it was a common occurrence— and wrapped his arms around her small figure in a bone crushing hug that she reciprocated with equal force. 

She laughed softly as Katara literally jumped into his arms, bonking her forehead against his as he held her like a toddler. They exchanged words and Suki saw how aside from a few glances coupled with points and whispers, nobody really acknowledged the two. It was likely because the majority of the school was either used to their physical affection, or just didn’t care. 

He held her as Suki led them to her lunch table, only putting the girl down once she offered him his copies of the class syllabi that he hadn’t gotten. Zuko took them with a quick nod as thanks, and as he walked away with his friend she watched him hold the packets at a level where Katara would be able to read them comfortably. She had wondered if he even realized he was doing it. Knowing him now, she concluded it was definitely a subconscious reflex. 

Katara was in their AP Biology class, and she suspected the girl chose to opt out of the Honors version of the class in favor of sharing another block with her friend. They sat at the same table as Suki, and she teased them about dating frequently. When the teacher allowed them to move seats later in the semester, all of them chose to stay. They became good friends, and through their interactions Suki was able to understand just how perfectly the two complement one another; Zuko was not too talkative unless spoken to directly, and Katara actively engaged with him in a way that was subtle enough to not be condescending in any way. 

It was the first day back from spring break when Katara warned her friend that a certain brother was going to challenge her to spar. Suki had actually laughed so loudly they were shushed by the table group that were seated behind them. Zuko was absent that day, and she wore his jacket like a sort of safety blanket. Finally able to ask why he left it for her whenever he was going to be absent, she was informed that it was a sort of inside joke. It was common knowledge that the boy was like a human space-heater, and Katara had always teased him that she was so used to his warmth that she would get cold whenever he was absent. 

The next time he was gone, she found the jacket and a note that read something like ‘don’t freeze without me.’ Suki pointed out that he couldn’t know when he would be sick, and her friend clarified that Zuko had his uncle Iroh drop it off in her locker for him. Iroh was the Philosophy and Culinary teacher, and took care of his nephew fairly often. The old man was quite meddling, and she suspected he had agreed to the request with ulterior motives that involved setting Zuko up with his cute friend. 

The following day, the human heater was back and Sokka marched into the gym after school challenging Suki to a spar. His sister— and by extension, Zuko— followed in behind him, the former looking quite exasperated. She explained that they had come to watch Sokka get his ass kicked and to be on call for first aid if he ended up needing it. 

Predictably, after about 10 minutes of circling the mat and spitting sexist trash talk, Sokka was able to throw a single punch before having the force of his attack turned against him and being unceremoniously thrown to the floor. The Martial Arts captain pinned his arms behind his back, ending the fight before it had a chance to begin. 

He had demanded about 3 more rematches, one of which he almost didn’t lose within the first 20 seconds. In the last round, the boy had managed to slide hard enough that he got a nasty friction burn when he fell. Katara could be heard laughing from the top of the folded up bleachers, phone in hand and recording the whole ordeal. Zuko had his arm wrapped around her middle to steady her, which everyone was glad for, because the fall was enough to break a bone or two if you fell down right. 

Declaring the sparring match over, Suki took a look at her opponent’s chin. The skin was rubbed raw and blood was oozing through various invisible openings in the burn, and she hissed through her teeth in sympathy. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Zuko slide down from the top of the bleacher wall and held out his arms so his companion could do the same— save for the majority of the fall. Once on the ground, Katara skipped over to her brother. She shook her head and took out the first aid kit, but before she could get to work on Sokka, Suki cut her off and offered to do it herself. 

She made the excuse of knowing how to treat a mat burn, but she saw the knowing glint in Katara’s eye. She knew that her friend thought that her brother was cute, and Suki knew that she knew. When she had taken Zuko by the arm and walked them both away, Sokka had apologized for saying all the things he did. He asked her to train him, and she agreed with a soft smile. It had been nice to know that at least one boy at their school could become a better person. She sent him off with a kiss on the cheek, and a blush on her own. 

They had officially started dating senior year, and he had stuck with her through the entirety of her deployment and never once let the distance between them dull his feelings. 

“Whatcha smiling about? Are you thinking about your charming and handsome boyfriend?” A voice inquired, the arm he had draped over her shoulders pulling Suki closer to his side. 

Turning to face said boyfriend, she was pulled out from her trip down memory lane and brought back to the present. Giving Sokka a long, soft kiss on the cheek, she purred, “Yeah, actually. I was.” 

With a blush and dopey smile that hadn’t changed since the very first time she ever pecked him, he responded by pulling her into a proper kiss. She smiled against his lips, and Toph covered her ears. The girl declared loudly, “Guys, hurry up with that secret door! You’re taking so long that Sokka and Suki are gonna start making out soon!”

“You can’t rush an archeological excavation,” Katara replied, still focused on her current task. 

Suki saw that while she had been wrapped up in nostalgia, a variety of tools had been assembled to assist her friends in carving out the outline of a door around the metal hatch; on the floor there was a butter knife, a pair of Sai that were taken from the exercise room wall, and an exacto-blade lid. Katara was using the small knife to follow the indentation while Zuko held up his phone to be used as a flashlight. Aang was sitting by Toph looking dejected, ‘probably mad that he wasn’t the one holding the flashlight for Katara’ she thought. 

Just as she began seriously considering going back to ‘making out’ with Sokka, as Toph had put it, a loud CRRACK! preceded the sound of wood splintering; with that, the little door was open, and Katara was already sticking her entire upper body through to investigate. Zuko, visibly worried, wrapped an arm around her waist and tugged the girl back out. 

“Katara, I love that you’re being brave, but can you please at least shine a light into the strange dark passage before diving in headfirst?” He asked her, using the same tone one would typically reserve for talking to hyperactive preschoolers. 

Crossing her arms and pouting, she replied, “But the mystery is what makes it fun!” and Suki suddenly realized that Zuko’s previous inflection was completely justified. Somehow, he had just known she would react like a child. She distantly wondered if they could read each other’s minds.

“Let’s just take a look before I lose the only good thing in my life to the creepy gaping hole under my own house,” He reasoned, leaning to reach around her side with his phone, and the flashlight revealed an open room with a ladder leading down into it. Sokka tensed at the sight. With a quiet gasp, Suki muttered, “Good thing you had her, Zuko.” 

Looking a bit pale, the boy nodded, pulling his best friend closer to his chest. Katara looked completely unbothered, but leaned in to hug the boy anyways. When he rested his forehead on her shoulder, blue eyes softened and she carded one of her hands through the hair on the back of his head. The action caused him to visibly relax, and she told him, “I’m sorry for scaring you.” 

He pulled his head back up to meet her gaze and she brushed his hair away from his eyes. It made him smile and he replied, “I’m just glad you didn’t fall and snap your neck or something.” 

Sokka nodded from beside Suki and exclaimed, “Katara, I swear to god, you would be dead without constant supervision.” His sister huffed but made no attempt to disagree. 

Aang had Toph on his arm, and as he led her over he was explaining what exactly just happened. She was nodding and immediately asked the rest of the group, “So what's down there? Besides a death trap.” 

Katara shrugged and Zuko looked back into the room under the counter. The door was small but wide, meaning the only way they could get down was by laying on their stomachs and sliding in feet-first. Further examination revealed the presence of a metal ladder bolted onto the wall, and several firm tugs proved it to be sturdy enough. He looked at his friends and suggested, “If someone holds the flashlight, I’ll go down first. I don’t think the fall will be much, but just in case it would be better for someone who isn’t the size of a 10th grader to test that theory before we can be certain.” 

With a pointed look at Katara, she sighed and relented. Aang offered to hold the flashlight, since he didn’t have any hair that would hang down in Zuko’s face. Everyone agreed to the plan and the descent began; the room was silent as Zuko disappeared into the dark, vertical passage. 

After a couple steps down the ladder, they heard his feet hit the ground and he called up, “Yeah, it wasn’t bad at all. Could I get a flashlight? There’s probably a light switch or something down here.” 

Aang reached in and handed him the phone, and a few seconds later a dim light flickered on and could be seen from the mouth of the entrance. Katara immediately lowered herself into the room, and her complaints echoed a bit as Zuko grabbed her waist and lifted her the rest of the short way down. 

She spun around to see the room wasn’t much bigger than the bathrooms on the ground floor, and her face lit up as she recognized it to be a wine cellar. Better yet, it was stocked. The walls were made of several brick arches, and each one had 3 stone slabs set in like shelves. Various bottles were stacked on top of one another and filled the walls of the small space. 

“Holy shit!” She exclaimed, grinning, “this is a fucking jackpot!”   
Sokka’s head poked through the doorway in curiosity, and he gasped, “SECRET WINE!” The boy then pulled his head out to repeat what he said to the rest of the room, and Katara looked at Zuko. 

“Is all this Uncle Iroh’s?” She asked, and he shook his head saying, “I just texted him. He said it must’ve been sealed off by the original owners, because he didn’t know it existed.”

The small water tribe girl picked up one of the bottles and gasped, “This is literally 102 years old. Oh my god. Oh my actual living god—“

Zuko looked at her, and felt his chest tighten as he drank in her expression. Blue eyes narrowed as she read the date on the bottle a second time just to be sure, and her nose scrunched up like it did in school whenever she was focused. ‘This isn’t fair’ he complained in his head. ‘Best friends shouldn’t be this cute.’

He felt a tug on his arm as said best friend led him towards the ladder, whispering excitedly, “I’m gonna get so fucking drunk.” With that declaration, she handed off a couple bottles of wine through the opening and hauled herself up the ladder. Zuko flicked off the light and followed her back up, turning to close and latch the newly visible door once he was all the way out. 

Thinking back to the last time he got drunk with his friend, he realized it was in highschool during his sophomore year. They had met up on the roof of his uncle’s house after Zuko had a particularly bad time with his father. Wanting a distraction from the fresh bruises he could feel blossoming on his arms and side, he shot his Psych partner a text asking if she wanted to hang out and work on their presentation. Already a little tipsy, he hadn’t thought twice about answering her with the truth when she had asked, “Why so late?” 

She had told him to send his location and he did, only realizing what he had said once he went back and read the exchange a couple more times. Groaning, he ran a hand down his face and contemplated jumping off the roof and dying. He decided against it, since he didn’t want his uncle to be the one to discover his nephew’s dead body in his backyard. About 10 minutes later, he watched the little freshman hop the fence into the very backyard he wasn’t lying dead in. She saw him on the roof and he waved, watching her sharp blue eyes survey her surroundings— probably looking for a way to get up. 

Zuko always just climbed through the guest room window onto the roof, and before he could say anything to his classmate, he watched her scale the tree until they were nearly at eye level. Then, after looking at the flat top of the porch cover that connected to the rest of the house, she fucking jumped. He gasped, and Katara hauled herself up over the edge like she had done it a million times before. She made her way up and plopped down next to him, not even breathing much heavier than normal. 

“What the hell are you made of?” He had asked her, and was met with a grin as she replied, “best partner ever material.” Zuko laughed, wincing as his bruises reminded him of their existence. Moving close quickly, Katara sat herself in front of him and held him steady by the shoulder. Sympathy clouded her gaze and she muttered, “I can’t believe you dad did this. I think I’m going to commit a felony.” 

Shaking his head, Zuko rasped, “I’m sorry I dumped that on you. It’s not a big deal, could we drop it?” The girl’s expression darkened and he readied himself for the scolding that he knew was coming. He shouldn’t have told her off. Stupid asshole. After she came all this way for your dumb sorry excuse for a— “Ok.” 

His head shot up to look at his classmate, baffled at her reply. “What?” Zuko asked softly, suddenly aware of how shallow his breathing had gotten.   
“I said ok,” She repeated, rubbing his back in the same way he remembered his mother would when he would cry from nightmares, or worse— real life. 

“Aren’t you pissed?” He found himself asking, cursing the alcohol for dulling his verbal filter. Instead of disgust or anger or any other negative response he had grown used to expecting, Zuko was met with a soft smile as she told him, “Hey, I know we aren’t too close, but I want you to know that I’m never going to get angry at you for telling me how you feel. I care about you, Zuko, and I want to know how I can show you that I mean it. I really do appreciate it when you let me know what you’re thinking, because unfortunately I can’t read minds,” she chuckled and slid closer so she could lead against his side. 

He remembered how she was careful to observe his body language, moving slowly and deliberately. She was cautious with the pressure she applied and only relaxed when she was sure it didn’t hurt him. Zuko leaned into her touch and said softly, “I can’t remember the last time someone told me that.”

Katara kept rubbing his back, smiling softly when she told him, “Well, you’d better get used to it if we’re going to be friends.” Friends. It sounded so odd in his head that he asked her, “Are we friends now?” Blue eyes looked up and into his own and he looked back, searching. “I mean, only if you want to be,” She shrugged. 

Zuko smiled and replied, “I’d like that a lot.” She blinked slowly, the action reminding him of a cat. Then she smiled and teased, “So, friend, why does your breath smell like cheap whisky?” 

The comment made him stiffen in embarrassment and he rubbed the back of his neck as she laughed, “I don’t mind, but you’d better have brought enough to share.”   
The easy response surprised Zuko a bit, and he cocked his head to the side in question. Seeing the motion, Katara asked, “What? Do I have tree sap on my face?”

“No no, that’s not it. I just— I just didn’t know you drank,” He admitted sheepishly to the freshman, and she shrugged good-naturedly. “I get that. Most people wouldn’t either,” she nodded and explained, “I have a brother your age and no adult supervision beyond my grandma.” 

Furrowing his brow, Zuko asked her, “What about your parents?” The sad smile he got in response made him immediately regret asking, but before he could apologize or anything she said, “My mom died in an accident when I was 5, and since then my dad’s re-enlisted into the military and comes home once every few years. He calls, but it’s just not the same.” 

The sophomore nodded solemnly and pulled a bottle out of his backpack. He took a swig before handing it off and said, “My mother died too. At least, that’s what the detectives said. Someone broke into our house when everyone else was away and she got kidnapped or something…” A soft hand traced circles into his back and he took a deep breath, continuing, “it was pretty open and shut. My dad came home to find the door kicked open and called the police, who ruled it a burglary gone wrong. But I don’t— I just don’t think that was the case. Nothing was gone other than some of her jewelry and her phone. Well besides my whole entire mom,” he laughed bitterly. 

“That is suspicious, but why didn’t the police investigate further? There was clearly more going on…” Katara agreed, taking a drink of the whisky and wincing as it burned a trail down her throat. “Well, that’s where it gets complicated,” Zuko began, accepting another drink. “because my father is the chief of police. I think he hired some sort of hit and covered it up. It was the middle of the day and yet there wasn’t a single witness. Nobody else was home, and they never found a body.”

Ignoring the way the alcohol stung, Zuko drank more until the bottle was about half empty. “...Is that why you’re studying to major in Criminology?” A soft voice asked, and he nodded. “I want to reopen my mother’s cold case. I want to put my shitbag father behind bars where he belongs. I want to bring him to justice…. That, and make sure no other family ever has to go through what I did,” he spat. The alcohol was making his thoughts hazy, and he felt a lump form in his throat. 

“God, I’m already drunk,” Katara admitted, shaking her head. That made Zuko smile, and he teased weakly, “You had like, 3 sips.” Sticking her tongue out briefly, his friend then pointed out, “You've been a bottle hog, and are also definitely drunk.” 

The last thing Zuko could remember was agreeing before being pulled down into Katara’s lap and being lulled to sleep by the feeling of her fingers dragging gently over his scalp as she combed his hair out of his face. For once, he didn’t feel ashamed of his scar. 

When he woke up in the guest room bed, Zuko was incredibly disoriented. It was still dark, and he felt a warmth at his side; turning to the source of the comfort, he saw his friend curled up in the space under his arm. She was wearing one of his sleep shirts and her slow, even breaths told him she wasn’t awake yet. They must’ve migrated inside or something. The clock read 4:15 a.m. 

Everything rational in his brain told him to wake the girl up and let her know she should probably go home— but everything in his body screamed in protest, relishing in the contact. Her dark skinned arm was draped over Zuko’s stomach, and it was better than any weighted blanket. Shifting to press his nose against the top of her head, the dull headache and feeling of safety convinced him to go back to sleep. 

Waking up a second time, Zuko felt the empty patch of bed next to him and saw it was 12 in the afternoon. Not entirely convinced the night before was real, he reached for his phone to see if he had ever even texted Katara. The screen displayed a couple text messages from the girl, and he swiped to view them after punching in his passcode. 

They were sent at 5:30 that morning, and he felt warmth spread from his chest to his cheeks as he read them: 

‘Sorry for falling asleep! I didn’t realize you were so warm and comfortable, lol!’

‘btw, I’m gone because I had to run home before anyone else woke up. I would have let you know, but you looked so comfortable I didn’t want to disturb you.’ 

‘also, I’m keeping this shirt. Its comfy. just think of it as the price of being my friend. i will be taking more and you cannot stop me.’ 

Zuko watched as Katara popped open one of the bottles of wine— the action was met with roaring applause and cheering from their friends, and as she poured everyone a glass of the sweet-smelling alcohol, he noticed she was wearing one of his old sleep shirts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> holy backstory, batman! that was a lot of glimpses into the past through a couple different perspectives! I’m sorry this chapter focused a lot on Suki and her memories, i just love her very much and i wanted to look at Zuko and Katara through the lense of an observing party as opposed to just them. Idk if that even makes sense lmao. ANYWAYS!!!!! comments are always appreciated! I want nothing more than to be able to make my jumbled thoughts into something that is actually comprehensible. Any constructive criticism and general feedback would be fantastic!!


	3. doorja vu

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alternate title: Katara never gets her coffee.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi i’m back with an update!!!! sorry for the time gap, i updated my ipad and tumblr stopped working so i’ve been having a conniption trying to fix that dilema. ANYWAYS!!!!! i’m trying to figure out how to properly format dialogue happening between multiple different characters... i really should’ve paid more attention in english class.

Katara woke up to a soft tickle under her nose, the itchy feeling rousing her from what she remembered to be a good dream— this won’t do. 

She moved her hand from where it hung off the side of the bed, intending to swat away whatever was wiggling around on her face; what she didn’t expect was for her efforts to be met with a face-full of something… wet. Fluffy. Definitely _not_ her hand. 

The shock was enough to make Katara sit up on instinct, spluttering the substance out of her mouth and nose. 

_“Oh my god— tell me you got that Aang,”_ she heard Sokka stage whisper, not at all subtly. 

They are _dead._

Wiping off the excess from her face into her already dirty hand, Katara turned to face the boys; she narrowed her eyes and took deadly aim. She intended to exact her revenge. 

Sokka yelped and took a few steps back, a lifetime of pranks and retaliation from his sister had taught him to fear that face— Aang, on the other hand, wasn’t so lucky. He didn’t know just how good an arm his friend has. 

He made the mistake of turning to face Sokka, most likely to seek some sort of answer. The simple action of inquiry left the boy’s head wide open. 

“Never turn your back on the enemy,” Katara hissed, a menacing smile accompanying her words of warning. She launched the gob from her hand directly to the side of a bald head, counting on his quick reaction time. It had been something she had grown accustomed to back in highschool, back when they would flick pieces of eraser at one another during calculus. 

Aang stiffened up and turned around, just as she had predicted. The projectile collided with his face as he was moving, but a portion of it broke off as the momentum carried it onward— straight into Zuko, who had come to see what Sokka’s screaming was about. 

Katara licked her lips, forgetting the residual substance— _it’s whipped cream_ — and smiled sheepishly as the scarred boy stops in his tracks and stares at her. 

“Katara,” he sighed, looking away from her once again so he could wipe the whipped cream from where it had found purchase on his torso. 

“Have I ever mentioned that you’re the most important person to me ever and that I love you very much?” she said sweetly, glaring at Aang and Sokka when they voiced their protests. 

“...Katara.”

“Yes, Zuko?”

“Why in god's name are you having a whipped cream fight at 8 in the morning?” He questioned slowly, making a face that said he knew he wouldn’t like any answer he got. 

Aang had since finished cleaning what he could off his face and was licking his fingers, shrugging, 

“Sokka wanted to try this prank where you put stuff on someone’s hand while they’re asleep and then you take a feather and like—“ he gestures a back and forth motion under his nose. “Y’know?”

Zuko watched in disgust as Aang offered some whipped cream from his finger to Sokka, who took it and ate it without hesitation. He shared a look with Katara. She stuck out her tongue in distaste at the actions of their friends. They’ve always been like this, but the two could never understand how or why they were so nasty—moreover, how they could be like that in the face of a _literal pandemic._

“Ok but why Katara?” Zuko sighed and went on, “Everyone knows she gets psycho when she can’t wake up on her own time.”

“hey—“ Katara interjected. 

“I say that with nothing but love and fear in my heart for you, Katara.” He placated, and they both knew he was speaking the truth. 

The aforementioned girl made a scene of putting her hand over her heart and swooning. Aang scowled. 

“If you guys are going to act like this all the time, you could at least do everyone a favor and actually _date,_ ” Sokka scrunched his nose at the over the top displays of affection before focusing on the younger boy in his peripherals— he did mean what he said, but the more important reason behind the statement was to see Aang’s reaction.

And as always, he delivered; Sokka rationalized his constant stoking of the fire that was Aang’s one-sided love rivalry with Zuko by the fact that the kid was always just so… bothered. It was like he was practically _begging_ to be messed with. And it was Sokka’s sworn duty to exploit that. 

Katara huffed and crossed her arms, turning up her nose, “For your information, Sokka, we have been married for 17 years.” 

Zuko coughed to mask his laughter, before clearing his throat and nodding. “Yeah, god Sokka.” 

“Kiss her then.” Piped up someone else, startling everyone out of their banter. 

4 heads whipped around to see Toph standing in the hallway, looking smug. 

“We’re kissing right now Toph I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Katara deadpanned, not missing a beat. 

“Bullshit, sugar queen! I can fucking hear when people kiss and you are _definitely_ not—“ 

“—Gross Toph, you listen to people kiss?” Sokka teases. 

Milky eyes narrowed and there was a soft sound of a fist connecting to the boy’s shoulder, followed by the decidedly not-so-soft sound of Sokka crying out in pain and dramatically collapsing to the floor, clutching his supposedly injured appendage. 

“Darn, you killed Sokka,” Katara snickered. The bed shifted from the weight of Zuko sitting down next to her, and she fell backwards on top of his thighs. 

“This is so sad,” Added her human pillow, monotone voice dripping with sarcasm, though the small lopsided smile betrayed the mirth behind the statement. 

“Lmao bye.” Replied younger girl, grinning. 

“You wound me with your callous words,” Sokka wept from beyond the grave. 

Aang prodded the limp body on the floor with his foot, letting out a sigh as it flopped around easily.

“Now that Sokka isn’t here to eat all the leftovers, what will we do?” The boy pondered out loud, looking hopefully at Katara when he spoke again. 

“Y’know what would be a good leftover eater—“

“No”

“... a do—“

“we’re not getting a dog, Aang.” Katara stated, and she definitely would’ve stomped her foot if she hadn’t been splayed out on the bed like a starfish. 

“Technically we already have a dog,” He countered, a persuasive lilt in his voice. But she was ready. Fixing her sharp stare on him, she argued,

“Appa is with Gyatso — aka not here— aka not our dog.”

Zuko’s smile widened. He always found it endearing when Katara mothered their younger friends, and also her theoretically older brother; Toph has called her “mom” on a number of occasions, though nobody mentioned it for the sake of not getting beat up. 

“Back me up here, Sokka!” Aang whined, shaking his friend back and forth with his foot once again. Face down, he grumbled something from his place on the carpeted floor. 

“I’m gonna sit on you, Sokka, deadass,” Toph threatened, already moving to follow through with it. 

With that, the water tribe boy sprung up in what would have been an impressive display of athleticism if it hadn’t been the automatic fear response triggered by a blind high school senior close to half his size, give or take. 

Somehow during the whole mess, Suki had snuck into the room and was sitting behind Katara alongside Zuko; they took turns brushing and messing with their friends' hair, attempting to tame it from the wild mass of dark fluff brought on by sleeping with it loose. 

Suki let the pale boy beside her carry out most of the detangling, as he had been doing it consistently for a couple of years and had become quite good at it. 

She thought back to biology, when Katara would finish the assigned work early and rest her head in her arms. Zuko always finished next, combing his fingers through dark curls after he passed Suki the worksheets so she could check all her answers with the others. It was a nice system. 

“I’m miraculously alive!” Sokka announced proudly, as if he didn’t have carpet fibers clinging to every article of clothing on his body. Suki chuckled at her boyfriend as she walked over to give her dork a kiss on the cheek. 

“I’m very proud of you, baby,” she cooed jokingly, but the carpet coated boy beamed all the same. Toph pounded her fists against the floor, exclaiming. 

“FUCKING SEE KATARA— THATS WHAT KISSING SOUNDS LIKE!” 

“Gross, Toph, stop listening,” Sokka stuck out his tongue at her, despite the fact she couldn’t see it. She could usually tell what they were doing, even when it was silent; it was quite funny the first few times she actually reciprocated some of Sokka’s rude gestures. 

Katara thought back to the time her brother made the mistake of flipping her the bird too close to her face— somehow, through some 6th bastard sense, Toph leaned forward and bit down on the finger as if she had perfect vision. The memory made Katara snort as she tried to stifle a laugh, and when Zuko looked at her questioningly she explained.

“Remember that time Toph bit Sokka when he flipped her off?” 

Suki barked out a laugh, leaning against her boyfriend as she exclaimed, “He jumped like 6 feet in the air!” 

“Not to mention screamed like a little girl,” Aang rolled over and giggled from the floor, where he had taken Sokka’s place of splaying out on the carpet. He really didn’t have any room to talk, given the flighty boy’s propensity for reacting much the same way— if not more— when spooked. 

Pulling away from Suki to assume a more predatory stance over the body on the ground, Sokka growled, “Oh, i’m gonna get you for that, you little—“ 

Aang shrieked and scrambled to his feet, tearing through the hallway and out into the living room with Sokka hot on his heels. Zuko felt his legs shake from Katara’s heavy laughter, and when she looked up at him with blue eyes brimming with tears from the effort, he felt something in his chest squeeze. 

Peering down at her through dark, shaggy bangs, he smiled and scrunched up his nose in mirth. 

“C’mon, Kat,” he prodded her up. “Let's get you some coffee before you kill us all.” 

She groaned, wrapping her arms around his neck, “Carry me, fool.” Her best friend begrudgingly slipped his arms under her legs and against her back, hoisting Katara up with practiced ease. 

Suki laughed at the familiar sight, her expression morphing into one of concern as there was a loud CRASH— followed by Aang’s high pitched shout.  
“Holy _CRAP!! SECRET ROOM PART TWO!!!!!”_

The three friends all shared a look, and Katara wiggled out of Zuko’s hold. She sighed, knowing this can’t be the start of anything good or relaxing.

After a moment or two of letting her shoulders sag in defeat, she straightened back up as they all walked hastily into the living room— coffee will apparently need to wait— only to be met with a toppled bookshelf, revealing an old wooden door in a style quite similar to that of the wine cellar. 

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.” Zuko muttered, slapping the heel of his palm against his forehead and dragging it upwards through his hair. He checked the clock hanging above the kitchen table. 

9:34 am. 

As if reading his mind, Katara massaged her temples as they all surveyed the wreckage before them. 

“It is too goddamn early for this shit.” She grumbled, and Zuko huffed in agreement. 

“How many secret rooms does this house have?” Suki wondered aloud. She paused and let her voice rise as she jumped onto a new train of thought. “More importantly, how the fuck did Aang topple a _whole ass bookshelf!?”_

The boy in question, as well as Sokka, looked up at her sheepishly. When she offered no consolation, Aang cleared his throat and replied in a small voice. 

“Uh… talent?” 

Several pairs of eyes turned to glare at him and he continued, “and maybe some poorly thought out bookshelf parkour…” 

“Welp. We might as well open whatever the hell it is.” Toph suggested from the couch, keeping away from the minefield of unfamiliar obstacles that littered the floor; before anyone could respond, she clarified, “And by we I mean you dumbasses, I’m staying right here where I know where the hell shit goes.” 

“Fair enough,” Sokka shrugged, and they all picked their way around the scattered debris, making their way to the old mysterious door. 

“Good thing this isn’t a horror movie,” Aang laughed, earning him a chorus of outcries as his friends now had that thought seeded in their subconscious. 

Zuko silently resolved that if this were going to be any movie, it would be a slasher film— and Aang would be his first and only victim.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this was such a short one!!! i want to start getting them out more consistently so i had to cut parts haha. Comments and advice are always appreciated!!!!! please help me lol


	4. CSI— Cave Scene Investigation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What lies beyond the tunnel? more importantly, is it meant to be disturbed?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Going back to my old format again, though it’ll be more centered around the perspective of one character rather than the omniscient bouncing it was doing before. sorry for the inconsistency! i’m at a cabin in central oregon and have some spotty ass connection. tumblr is still flaking on me and i am about to pass away. anyways enjoy!

_Creeeaaaaak—_

The old wooden door opened far easier than Zuko had expected it to, though he winced at the shrill sound of the metal hinges grinding against one another; decades of remaining untouched by all but the faint moisture in the air that collected every time it rained had given the once dark metal a stubborn, rusty exterior. 

Stepping inside, the faint drip of stale water echoed through the corridor. The air smelled musty, but not unpleasant, and it reminded Zuko of the scent that accompanied rain back home in Caldera city. 

From the living room, Aang announced that he would hang back with Toph; this left the 4 college kids to explore on their own. 

It was momentarily surprising when his hard steps were interrupted by a small splash, a puddle of water from god knows where previously replacing the once solid ground he was trodding on. He had half a mind to wonder where it came from, but it wasn’t really like he could ask anybody; the scarred boy settled for simply moving on. 

_‘Water always finds a way,’_ he mused inwardly, stealing a glance at Katara.

It really was inevitable that he associated her with water, what with her being both the captain of their highschool swim team _and_ co-captain of the beach volleyball team and all. Plus, she literally hailed from the southern water tribe. The girl had a natural affinity to the element, and Zuko had always loved watching her compete, whether her team won or lost was secondary to the experience (though they did rarely lose). She always moved so gracefully in the water, dark skin and hair contrasted breathtakingly against the pale uplighting of the school’s pool— 

He shook his head a bit, thankful for the cover provided by the darkness. His face felt hot and was undoubtedly quite red. It always happened when he thought about Katara for more than 2 seconds, and Zuko _really_ didn’t want to read into the feelings that surfaced whenever he thought about his best friend and her piercing blue eyes, or her soft chocolate curls, or the way she couldn't help but cry whenever he made her laugh too hard oh god…

 _‘shut up shut up shut up’_ screamed the pitifully small rational functioning piece of Zuko’s brain. He really needed to stop, but it was just so easy to lose himself in a spiral of happy memories of his pretty, blue eyed, partner-in-crime. 

“I hope this leads to more alcohol,” the subject of his thoughts whispered, her silky voice sending unwanted shivers down Zuko’s spine. When she reached out and wrapped around one of his arms with both her own, he felt guilty for having such thoughts about the friend who trusted him so deeply that even the most intimate of touches were just a second nature. 

“That would be _way_ too lucky,” he chuckled lightly, hoping his voice didn’t betray how badly he wanted to wrap his arms all the way around her small frame and never let go. 

Zuko had always been touch starved— that was probably why he always drank up any and all physical affection Katara presented him with. Yeah, that was why. He just didn’t have anyone else to give him the comfort that only another body could bring. It was pathetic, really, how desperately he leaned into any contact she made with him, no matter how casual. Luckily, Katara was a naturally touchy person. They had taken some weird love languages quiz at Suki’s insistence some time ago, and both of them had physical affection ranked as their number one; Zuko’s number two was a tie between words of affirmation and quality time, with Katara’s second being just the latter.

He started to think back and realize how she had subtly started to remind him he was important more often after that, and couldn’t help but lose himself in the wave of appreciation he had for his friend. She had always done what she could to show him compassion in a way that wasn’t mistakable for pity, the way many others treated him after seeing his face. 

She squeezed his arm in a friendly manner, pulling him from his thoughts as she smiled and announced, “If we find more wine, I’m gonna get so drunk you won’t even _recognize me._ ” 

Zuko laughed at that, fully believing her. 

“You already did that last time,” Suki pointed out, being one of 3 people in total who stayed sober enough to actually remember the night she spoke of clearly. Toph and Aang were the other 2, as they had elected instead to make more curtains composed of literally just worms on a string.

_“Why are you so into this, Toph, you can’t even see them,” he had asked her._

_“I dunno, they kinda remind me of Aang,” she responded matter-of-factly, and for some reason it made sense, even after the alcohol had cleared from his mind._

Despite her status as the only one to drink and stay sober enough that she didn’t cry when they spontaneously decided to watch the lion king, Suki had probably consumed more wine than Zuko and Katara combined. It wouldn’t surprise him—that girl could hold her drinks like they were _nothing._

Then again, it very well could have been next to nothing. He and Katara were notorious for being absolute lightweights, though Zuko could take solace in the fact that at least he could vaguely remember bits and pieces of the events that took place whenever he got heavily intoxicated. 

Katara, on the other hand, went into a full on blackout. It led to some pretty hilarious videos, as the girl tended to have the same drinking tendencies as Amy Santiago from Brooklyn 99, though the lines between his friend’s different personalities were far more blurred and the changes were definitely less drastic. He mentally patted himself on the back for making a pop culture reference. 

Circling back to Suki’s earlier point, Zuko chuckled and teased the girl on his arm, “Yeah, you weren’t exactly your typical dignified self.”

“That’s putting it way too nicely, dude,” Sokka huffed, and the smirk that was undoubtedly plastered on his smug face could be heard in his voice. “Katara stood up on the counter and sang like… the entire first act of Hamilton.” 

“You say that like she wouldn’t have kept going,” Suki countered, dragging her hand along the cold stone of the walls that enclosed the group. 

“That’s a fair point,” Sokka admitted, laughing as he immediately added, “I was actually surprised with how much you knew, though, Zuko.” 

Feeling his face go red again, Zuko remembered how he had totally joined Katara for several duets on the countertop. It wasn’t his fault that his best friend had the whole musical memorized, despite only ever listening to the playlist on spotify. She would play it when they studied, and somehow he had grown to associate certain songs with specific passages of his psych textbook or a list of muscle structures from anatomy. 

“I was not aware of this what the fuck. Please tell me you have videos,” Katara surprised him by demanding her brother for footage of the performances. She usually hated anything that depicted her, though Zuko couldn’t fathom why. The only exception was the selfie he took of the both of them when she had fallen asleep on his shoulder a couple weeks ago; they both had that one set as their phone wallpapers.

“I'll send you a link to the dropbox folder I have full of them,” He assured her; Zuko tried not to dwell on the fact that he had so many videos a fucking _dropbox folder_ was required. 

Somehow, the passage kept on, inclined slightly downwards and snaking about. He prayed it wouldn’t just lead to a dead end, or something worse. He didn’t even have cell service this far down, if something were to happen. But he was just being paranoid— Aang’s previous mention of horror films were probably going to his head. 

“Hey Sokka,” Katara spoke again, and her scarred companion did his best to ignore the looming dread her words elicited from him. “You know what this reminds me of?” 

“Uh… no?” Her brother replied uncertainly, sounding a bit worried as well. Zuko heard him gasp in horror as the water tribe girl began talking in a musical voice that wasn’t quite singing. 

“Two lovers… forbidden from one anothe—“

“NO. _NONONO NO NO KATARA FUCK._ ”

“—r. A war. divides their people. A mountain. divides them apart.” 

Sokka’s voice rang against the stone as he wailed, and Katara’s cackling just sounded downright evil as she took a deep breath before reaching up and covering Zuko’s ears with her hands. 

“SECRET TUNNELLLLLLL. SECRET TUNNEL. SECRET SECRET SECRET TUNNEL!!!!!!” 

Thankful for the damper to the sound that her hands provided, Zuko tenderly put a hand over his friend's mouth to spare Suki as well. Katara let out an indignant — _mrrmph!_ — but ceased her sing-shouting. Just as he was about to pull his hand away from her face, he felt the girl stick out her tongue and lick his hand like a child would. 

“Oh— Katara _nasty!!!_ ” Jerking his hand away like she had just burned him, Zuko yelped and wiped his hand on her sleeve. She snickered and shrugged innocently, and Sokka grumbled something about when they were kids. 

Suki cleared her throat and asked, “So… what was that all about?” 

“Katara licked my hand because she’s gross and feral.” 

“I meant the singing but I won’t deny Katara probably has rabies.” 

Before Katara could explain the singing, Sokka hissed and told her, “I no longer have a sister. I am now an only child.” He scowled as the declaration was met with only more laughter from his sister, and Zuko looked at him in a way that signaled to go on. 

“That stupid song…” Sokka elaborated, “We were on a road trip with dad back in middle school, and he insisted we went on some big, dumb forest hike at one of the pit stops along the way. Supposedly it was some kind of _‘historic site,’_ ” He made air quotes to further drive his point home. 

“It was, though,” Katara quipped, but was cut off almost instantly. 

“—Nonono, Katara, _my story.”_

Zuko thought he sounded kinda like the creepy goblin from The Lord of the Rings.

 _“Mine.”_ Sokka reiterated. 

“uh huh.” 

_“Anyways,”_ He continued indignantly, “there were some hippy weirdos who were definitely stoners— I’m talking straight up 70’s type shit. Long hair, tinted glasses, goatee— the whole nine yards.” 

“Did they have weed?” Suki asked. 

“I’m pretty sure they had more than _just_ weed, but yeah at the very least they had the good kush.”

Katara snickered and muttered, “look dad, it’s the good kush.” 

“This is the dollar store, how good can it be,” Zuko finished. 

“Hey! Hey. No interrupting my story with outdated vine references.” 

“Sorry Sokka,” they chorused. 

“Go on babe,” Suki encouraged in a baby voice, to which Sokka responded way too positively for a man his age. 

“Ok so like, where was I?” 

“Hippies?” Katara suggested. 

“Yes! Hippies! Thank you Katara, your sisterhood has been restored.” He exclaimed, clapping his hands together once just to drive the point home. “So basically the forest trail led to a bunch of underground tunnels with these glow in the dark crystal thingies, and the hippies knew some songs about it. That would’ve been cool, but they would _not shut up.”_

Zuko felt as Katara slid one of her hands down to grab his, and tried not to let his mind regress to that of a 3rd grader holding hands with a girl for the first time. She twined their fingers together and put space between them to allow for her to swing their arms wildly as they walked. Her hand was cold as always, but the appendages were quickly warming up thanks to all the heat being stolen from Zuko’s much larger hand. 

“—And that’s why I momentarily disowned Katara.” Sokka concluded, and Zuko realized he had completely tuned out the other boy’s story. It was like a white noise machine, but just talking. Katara’s hand was a much more interesting subject, in his opinion. Nothing against Sokka’s story of course. The rapid back and forth motion that had previously been the center of Zuko’s attention suddenly ceased, and he turned slightly towards Katara in question. 

“Uh… is it just me or is the water getting louder?” She asked with an air of uncertainty. 

A hush fell over the group as they all listened to the familiar echo of collected moisture dripping from the ceiling. Instead, they heard a faint rush, as if someone had turned on a faucet. That would be all fine and dandy, but the problem is there are no sinks several feet underground. 

“It sounds like it's coming from an open room,” Suki observed, switching on her phone flashlight and shining it ahead. 

“How can you tell?” Katara inquired. 

“The way it echoes, it kinda bounces more. It’s hard to describe, but like— bigger spaces produce a lot more reverberation than small ones.” She explained, and the light of her phone shook from collateral force as she gestured wildly with the unoccupied hand. 

Zuko furrowed his brow and squinted ahead, trying to see if the tunnel had a foreseeable end. It would be a lot easier to do if one of his eyes wasn’t barely functioning and the other probably near-sighted, if not also going blind. Katara waved a hand in front of his face and giggled as he started and swatted it away. 

“I think i’m losing all of my vision,” he told her as she ceased her assault. “I will be fully blind by age 21.” 

“That’s a gross overreaction, but i’m very sorry you won’t wear glasses,” she patted his arm in sympathy. 

“I would look stupid in glasses.” 

Katara gestured to her face, wearing the same frames as she had since highschool, “Do you think I look stupid in these?” she demanded. 

“No, but you have the advantage of being cute to begin with,” he huffs, crossing his arms in an adolescent manner. 

“You’re very cute Zuko, don’t even start—“ 

“Oh my god, either go find somewhere to make out or stop flirting like you’re going to,” Sokka interjected, sticking out his tongue in a way that made Zuko’s arm cross look mature. He scowled back at the other boy, hoping to look menacing with his scar in the dim glow of a phone flashlight. 

“For the record, Zuko,” Suki piped up as she tugged her boyfriend's tongue once, watching it retract back into his mouth like a tape measure. “You would look cute in glasses. The same ones Katara wears, actually. You guys could twin.” 

“That is tempting,” he muses, before being abruptly jerked back. 

“We found our cave,” Suki announced, shining her flashlight onto an opening in the corner of the wall. It wasn’t massive, but it looked like it would be easy enough to squeeze through. It was charred around the rim, as if someone had used an explosive to bust it open. The tunnel would have been a dead end without it, and Zuko took a moment to be incredibly thankful for Suki and her survivalist know-how. Even if she did just shine a flashlight on a hole. 

“Ladies first,” Katara motioned her hand telling Sokka to go in. He glared at his sister but followed her command and Zuko snickered, resting his hand on the small of her back as they followed behind Suki. He didn’t know what to expect as he ducked in after his friends, but it certainly wasn’t anything close to the sight they were met with. 

Blinking a couple of times as his vision adjusted to the sudden change in atmosphere, Zuko inhaled sharply as he looked around in a daze. The cavern was illuminated by a soft green light, one that wasn’t visible in the tunnel because of their other light source. He was dimly aware of Suki switching off her phone and tucking it away, though the artificial white was easily eaten up by the surroundings. Various sizes of crystals crawled up the wall and hung from the ceiling, richer versions of the colored light they emanated. A waterfall poured from the far wall, collecting in a small river that flowed out of sight behind some larger crystals. 

“...holy shit,” Sokka muttered, and Zuko nearly punched him for breaking the awed silence that had been a moment before. 

Katara peeled away from the group and wandered to the middle, where the biggest crystal sat untouched. It looked almost ethereal, like the gemstone prison that had encased Princess Zelda in several of the games Zuko had watched Sokka and Katara play. She crept up to the towering structure, and when he heard her gasp lightly, Zuko trotted over behind Sokka. 

He nearly jumped out of his skin when the other boy shrieked, and it was a wonder that the sound didn’t disturb the crystals on the ceiling and cause a deadly rain. When Zuko saw what had caused the outburst, he suddenly understood why the water tribe siblings had reacted the way they did. 

Trapped in the gargantuan glassy stone, a human skeleton sat cross legged with arms lowered and hands forming a sort of triangle. The bones were disconnected at the joints, leaving small gaps where cartilage had once been. In the center of the triangular space created by the gesture, a pai sho tile faced outwards to reveal a faded white lotus. The style of it looked older than even those from Uncle Iroh’s antique set, and Zuko shivered. This thing was _ancient._

Katara pointed to a shallow engraving below the skeleton’s crossed feet, running her fingers over it as her brow furrowed in confusion. “I can’t read what it says,” she frowned. 

Reality felt like jello as Zuko’s mind rushed with possibilities as to why there was a skeleton holding a pai sho tile in a cave that was leagues under the surface of any known civilization. 

“It’s old earth kingdom script,” Suki muttered, stepping closer to examine the writing. “I don’t know a couple of these words, but I think I get the gist of it…” 

“What does it say?” Sokka prompted nervously. 

_“The catacombs sing praises of monsters to those who listen with dark ears. Death is not the greatest sorrow nor the end of suffering.”_

She took a breath and motioned with her hands as she explained, “So like, that's what I got— but again— I didn’t know the exact meaning of a couple words so if the ones I guessed on were important might have it completely wrong.” 

Katara pulled out her phone and snapped several pictures of the crystal, as well as close ups of the engraving and the lotus tile. She sighed and tucked it back into her pocket, “Well. This definitely isn’t more wine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope this chapter was satisfactory and the cliffhanger actually holds some weight! i wrote portions of it as my cousin blasted veggie tales on max volume, so it may be evident that i couldn’t hear myself think during several instances. sokka may have been cursed by the song of secret tunnel, but i swear to god if i hear one more god damn vegetable sing praises to the lord i will lose whats left of my feeble little mind.

**Author's Note:**

> please don’t hesitate to leave criticism or feedback!!! i have no idea what i’m doing and any guidance would be incredibly appreciated


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